I have a laptop dual booting vista & 10.04lts
vista came pre installed
I would like to burn an ISO of vista
so I can do a clean install of Ubuntu
I would like to have a copy of vista, should I ever feel the need to reinstall & since I have a legitimate validation key...
Did you already check the Gateway site? This is a way of making recovery Disk for a Gateway system with Vista. You u will have to explore their site to find out how to do it.

http://support.gateway.com/s/software/MICROSOF/vista/7515418/7515418asi.shtmlThis is on my wife's HP
I asked over on the windows section, as if I were going to replace the HDD
& got directed to burn some recovery disc's
I'm trying to do a clean vista install just to see if the disc's will work
the real plan is to install mint9 & use the entire HDD
I just want the option to put vista back in should the need ever arise
so far it hasn't & she has been happy using mint for about 3 months.
Your comments are confusing. In your initial post, you say you have Vista and Ubuntu installed. Then, in your reply to Geek-9pm, you say your wife has happily been using Mint for about 3 months. I think some clarification is needed. My wife hasn't booted into vista for months, so I was tidying up all the files, combining all the pictures w/pictures, documents all together & so on. I moved everything onto a different computer on the network

Mint9 is a deviation of Ubuntu 10.04, which is a little more polished, all the codecs & driver needed are already installed
the partitions were very messy, I really had a quad boot

having multiple OS's works, but it is confusing. In the end I couldn't stand having 60g of HDD devoted to vista. I found that working with video is actually easier in Unbuntu, than in windoze, for the simple things like downloading & burning

I burned the recovery discs for vista & ran far enough through the recovery process to feel confident the files are good
I did a fresh install of mint using the entire HDD, which only took about 1/2 hour. the notebook is so much more pleasant to use [trouble free too]

I've been working with Linux for a year now, most of my confusion has come from
working too hard, I've been finding all the apps I could ever want are available through synaptic & the software manager

It can get tricky when asking for help the user forum, as many of the solutions offered take me to Terminal... There are very few things that can't be done with a graphical interface [point & CLICK].
the greatest weakness is the knowledge base is geared much more to the experienced user.
It's as if there is a jump from learning how to build a wheel to designing the guidance control system for the space shuttle

I don't think linux is for everyone
But it is certainly a good choice for older hardware. I have a 1.3 gHz pentiumIII pc that is much more pleasant to use as a 10.04 machine than it ever was on XP.So, back to the basic question, which is how, or whether, Vista can be installed on a system with Linux already installed, right? I've never done that so all I can recommend is using Google or your favorite search engine to search for references such as: How to dual-boot Vista with Linux (with Linux installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots.

Of COURSE, another option would be to start from scratch, format the hard drive, install Vista, and then install your preferred Linux OS. But, I imagine you'd rather avoid that, if possible.

By the way, I can't image why you'd need to consume 60GB for Vista unless you had an exceptionally large amount of programs and files on that same partition. I think the normal method is too start with vista
Should I ever feel the need, this is what I'll do

The recovery discs I burned will wipe everything off the HDD...

I saw recommendations to never have less than 50g for vista, recovery was around 12g by itself
It was also suggested not to fill more than 2/3rds of the available HDD in vista

I'll probably never go back to vista, I just wanted to have the option, before installing linux on the entire HDDWell, I have Vista on my laptop and have 38GB allocated to drive C for Vista. Now, it's possible I may need to expand that partition if I installed numerous additional programs but, as it stands now, 38GB is sufficient. we really don't do anything unusual
gmail, surfing, pictures, listening to music [no downloading]
nothing especially resource intensive in the way of programs

We could never come to terms with Vista
The accounts & public folders were just a nightmare, an "expert" on another forum kept telling me not to treat it like XP
I never could figure out what that meant
I don't need a bunch of nag SCREENS & security to protect me from myself
Files go where I tell them to in [linux] mint, I was never quite sure in vista, whether things were moving or links being CREATED or copies being made....
other people love Vista & 7
I never tried 7, so I have no idea.
I didn't find vista especially user friendly, I guess my intuition is the wrong kind

Rant offIf vista came pre-installed in ur system, probably u must have a dump of the vista setup some where in ur c: drive.Not any more